HOLYOKE -- City councilors emerged from a 90-minute executive session Wednesday saying they have a better understanding about why Police Chief James M. Neiswanger handled incidents involving a sergeant and misplaced guns the way he did.

"They were very open and very thorough. It was very interesting. I got to understand the process the chief followed. We learned the internal process and that there was a lot of deliberation" regarding the chief's decisions, council President Kevin A. Jourdain said.

The only vote the council Public Safety Committee took after the closed-door session at City Hall was to vote that the order calling for discussion about numerous questions related to Sgt. John P. Hart was complied with.

Council consideration of the matters is closed, Jourdain said.

Mayor Alex B. Morse, with whom Jourdain shook hands after the meeting, also participated in the meeting.

Hart, a 16-year veteran, didn't attend the meeting.

Hart was suspended 10 days without pay for leaving his gun, which was recovered, in a restroom at J.C.Penny at the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside Nov. 24, Neiswanger said in February.

Neiswanger suspended Hart for five days without pay in 2011 for misplacing a department sniper rifle on Sept. 28, 2011. The rifle was recovered five months later in an alley after police got an anonymous tip.

After Hart's suspension for the J.C. Penny incident became known in February, Jourdain filed an order asking that Neiswanger attend a committee meeting. Jourdain and other councilors said they wanted to know why Hart wasn't punished more severely for losing a gun for a second time, what department policies were for such incidents and what the chief would have done with a private citizen who misplaced a gun in a rest room.

Councilors also said they were concerned the misplacement of guns might have put people in danger.

Neiswanger refused to provide such answers in the hour-long open session that preceded the executive session. He said personnel matters must be confidential at the risk of exposing the city and himself personally to liability. He met councilors' questions with similar refusal in the Public Safety Committee's previous attempt to question him March 31.
But in a trove of documents related to the Hart cases that The Republican and MassLive.com obtained Tuesday, memos show Neiswanger was much less reticent in communicating with Hart about the misplaced guns.

"Your actions were both careless and negligent and had the potential for a much more serious outcome. Fortunately, the situation was resolved without loss of property, serious personal injury or loss of life," Neiswanger told Hart in a Jan. 22 memo.

Clashes occurred at the March 31 meeting between Neiswanger and some councilors, but Wednesday's executive session was amicable, said Jourdain and committee Chairwoman Linda L. Vacon.

"It was amicable," Vacon said.

"I think in fairness, I think in the executive session the chief was much more forthcoming in the executive session than he was in the open session," she said.

She learned about the process Neiswanger used in determining how what Hart did should be handled in terms of discipline within department policies, she said.

"I would say I found the process to be thorough," Vacon said.

But, said Vacon -- who said before the closed-door session she believed it should be an open meeting -- she still disagreed that the meeting was held in a way that excluded the public and media.